Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Wedding bells

Yesterday, I found out that my niece is engaged and will get married, in Israel, on November 1. (For those of you just tuning in, I have two older brothers, one of whom is an ultra-orthodox Jew and lives in Jerusalem. He has five kids and they get married promptly around age 19-21. I've been to three weddings so far.)

I am planning to go. Ironically? Perversely? I got a summons to jury duty last night, for a special trial in US District Court that will last for eight weeks, starting October 12. I have to ask to be excused. I hope they will excuse me before I buy my plane tickets...though the materials said that I needed to show plane tickets/ reciepts as part of the request for exemption. I am sort of bummed, since I like jury duty. I was on an eight week trial a few years ago and it was fascinating (and terribly dull at times). I'd happily do it again, but the timing is bad. The trip to Israel isn't optional--I promised my niece and I am expected to be there.

In other trip worries, Mom wants to meet me there. I just...I just don't want this. I was vague about it because I'm afraid a firm no will hurt her feelings. The problem is that I'm already torn when I go to Israel. I have a lot of family demands--Dad, Israeli family, all the wedding stuff. It can be stressful. Then I have Spesh, who also wants to see me. He is easier to deal with and I want to give him a fair amount of my time (especially since that's usually more fun than the family time). I already have two things pulling me, add Mom in and it will just be too much. I don't want to deal with her needs, ETC. So, sigh, what will I do about that?

Next, I've been thinking that I want to combine the Israel trip with another more vacation-like trip. At first I was thinking Egypt or Jordon. I need someone to travel with me to those places and I don't know if that will happen. The other option would be a three legged trip, with a few days on the front or back end in London, Paris or somewhere else. London is tops, since I could see Alicia. Paris is second, because, well, it's Paris and I haven't been back since I lived there and it would be like a mini-homecoming. The airfares are pretty high now, but it's only an extra $300 or so to include Paris or London. Totally worth it, I think, though late October isn't the best time, weather wise, to visit. I think I'd have a great time: I would wear all my wool clothing, hand knit or otherwise and be plenty warm and dry.

I wish I didn't have to make all these decisions so fast, but maybe that's for the best. Round my plan up in a few days, deal with Mom, talk to Dad, buy some tickets and forget about it for the next two months. That seems like a good idea.

3 comments:

I always forget, these are half-brothers, right? Or is your mom not going to her son's wedding unless she goes with you? I'd also be reluctant to do Egypt or Jordan (or Dubai, also high on my list) solo, what about going with Spesh? But making it a 3-leg trip also sounds awesome...

There I go trying to give a quick family summary and leaving out the salient point that my mother is NOT skipping her granddaughter's wedding. Correct, my brothers and I share a father but not a mother.

I did broach the idea of an Egypt trip with Spesh a while ago, I guess I need to raise it again in a more immediate way.

Ah yes, I meant grand-daughter. I'm sure that you can explain to her that it's a time for you to focus on your dad's family and that you'd like to travel with her (there or elsewhere) but that this isn't the best trip for it.